Catching up....
Thank you for praying for the youth activity. We enjoyed having the teens over to our home to play games. We've got a very small pool table, shuffleboard table, bagatelle table (which I made) and a small foosball table. We had 7 teens present and had a great time. One teen was a first time visitor. She actually attended our HBC about 7 years ago with her brother.
Thank you as well for praying for the newspaper article. It came out this week. I'll attach a photo below as well as insert the text into the body of this update. It's an incredible privilige to be able to write anything God puts on my heart and get it into the paper. They changed my title (I don't mind) from "Popular Christianity?" to what you'll see below. The more I think about it - the more I'm glad that they changed it. Their title (which is actually a bit of a mis-quote) ought to grab people's attention in a way the other one would not have.
Don and I were able to get out with flyers on Wednesday and got a good bit done. We didn't have any divine appointments but as always we enjoyed the fellowship as we worked for the Lord. Thanks for praying for our outreach.
Our generation seems to have the idea that Christianity should be politically correct and acceptable within our society. It seems the common thought is that "popular Christianity" should be unoffensive, tolerant, and supportive of the thinking of mankind (humanism).
However, is that Biblical Christianity? Was Jesus accepted by His society? If not, should a Bible believer today expect anything better than what Jesus received? Or, should the world try to impose on the Christian church a standard of seeking to please men instead of seeking to please God?
The Word of God says about Jesus, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:3) "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1:11)
Jesus said to his own half brothers, "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7:7)
Jesus said to His disciples, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:25)
By the Lord's own words the "popular Christianity" proposed by the world is easily seen to be a false Christianity. Is it any wonder that this "popular Christianity" has had so little impact on our society which is becoming increasingly more godless?
Jesus didn't come to earth to tell mankind that they were fine continuing in their sin while ignoring the reality of their punishment in an eternal Hell. He came to die for their sin and to give them an opportunity to repent (turn) from their sin by faith in Him. To quote Him, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5) One does not have to wonder what Jesus cared about. He cared about men's souls and about pleasing God the Father. He was NOT concerned about men's approval.
Could the same be said about your Christianity? If you want to experience Biblical Christianity, be ready to let your heart be "offended" by the truth of God's Word. Find out what the Bible says, believe it, and expect the world to treat you as they treated Jesus. For further reading please read 1 Peter 4 in your Bible.